Early Childhood Education
Our Early Childhood Education classroom communities (known as the "The Sweet Peas," "The Bumble Bees”, “The Dragonflies”, and starting in Fall 2007, “The Gladiolas” offer a rich variety of opportunities for children to experience freedom within a secure, attractively structured and welcoming environment. Maria Montessori recognized the spontaneous interest that arises within each child at this age. It is through the child’s interest and active engagement that the love of learning arises. Our Montessori-trained teachers observe and record each child’s individual progress, knowing when to allow a child to work with genuine interest, or when to introduce a new challenge or point of interest.
The Sweet Pea, Bumble Bee, and Dragonfly classrooms have two Montessori-credentialed Directresses and one Classroom Assistant and up to 36 children, ages 2.9 to 6 years old. Our newest ECE/Primary classroom, The Gladiolas, will have two Montessori Directresses and up to 24 children ages 2.9 to 4 years old.
The ECE program provides a 3 year sequential Montessori curriculum for 3 to 6 year olds. (In Fall of 2008 we will expand The Gladiolas to the full three-year age range.) The mixed age group allows a spirit of community and family to grow. The older children experience the joy of helping the younger ones, thereby crystallizing their own knowledge and paving the way for the younger ones to learn and grow. Children have the freedom to work with others who share their interests and level of ability, regardless of age. Children remain in their classrooms for the full three years, culminating in the child’s Kindergarten year.
The ECE environment in The Sweet Peas, The Bumble Bees, The Dragonflies, and The Gladiolas offer an integrated and developmentally based approach to educating the whole child. Building and developing a child’s focus and concentration skills are a prerequisite to the successful introduction and mastery of academics. The ECE program at Country Montessori includes:
Practical Life
– The Practical Life area is the foundation of Montessori philosophy. The purpose is to help the child develop coordination, concentration, a sense of personal independence, and a sense of order. The precise movements of the Practical Life materials challenge the child to concentrate, work at her own pace uninterrupted, and to complete a cycle of work which typically results in the feelings of satisfaction and confidence. There are four categories of Practical Life:
- Care of the Person: dressing, washing hands, toileting hygiene, hanging up one’s coat, and polishing shoes
- Care of the Environment: washing a table, carrying a chair, folding napkins, dusting, plant and animal care
- Grace and Courtesy: greetings, classroom walking and talking, shaking hands, and general classroom manners
- Control of Movement: Walking the Line and the Silence Game
Sensorial Exercises
– Sensorial Exercises in the Montessori classroom are designed to help a child’s sensory integration. Sensory integration is the way the nervous system processes information from the senses. Sensory integration is the brain’s and nervous system’s ability to organize stimuli. When sensations flow in an organized manner, the brain can use these sensations to form perceptions, behavior, and learning. The ECE program at Country Montessori includes sensorial exercises such as gradations of color, dimension, sound, tactile impressions, comparisons of smell and taste, geography, and geometry.
Language Arts
– The Early Childhood Education Classroom provides an immersion for the child in language development. Muscular movement and fine motor skills are developed along with the ability of the child to distinguish the sounds which make up language. With this spoken language background the directress begins to present the alphabet symbols to the child. Not only can children hear and see sounds but they can feel them by tracing the sandpaper letters. When a number of letters have been learned the moveable alphabet is introduced. These wooden letters enable the child to reproduce his own words, then phrases, sentences, and finally stories. Creativity is encouraged and the child grows in appreciation of the power of language. Other materials follow which present non-phonetic spelling and grammar. Because children know what they have written, they soon discover they can read back their stories. Reading books both to themselves and others follow.
Mathematics
— A child’s introduction to mathematics in a Montessori classroom begins with concrete manipulatives for introducing numbers, shapes, mathematical operations, and the decimal system which leads the child to abstract mathematical ideas and relationships. Through sensorial experiences, the child has seen the distinctions of distance, dimension, graduation, identity, similarity, and sequence and is introduced to the functions and operations of numbers. A child learns abstract mathematical concepts by learning to add, subtract, multiply and divide with the use of concrete materials.
Music
— songs, music appreciation, and introduction to composers.
— creativity and expression in multiple mediums.
— language, music, and storytelling relative to the culturally-rich Hispanic peoples and countries.
An example of the daily schedule (link to a PDF file) for our ECE program can be downloaded.
At the end of the three-year cycle of the ECE program, the student is ready to move to the next three-year expanse for 6 to 9 year-olds in the Lower Elementary program. The ECE Directress determines a child’s readiness for the Lower Elementary program using a list of transition guidelines (download .pdf) in addition to formal and informal assessments.
